April is the start of a new financial year for me, and I’ve implemented a few changes. I’ve decided to get serious about tracking productivity – I’ve signed up for Toggl so I can record the time spent on projects and related tasks, and it should make clear how much of the working day I waste scrolling through Twitter or playing with the cat. Now I’ve settled into the Black Cat Editorial Services brand, I’ve set up a spreadsheet to track enquiries I receive and where the enquirer found my details. I’m hoping to work out where my marketing efforts are best focused – at the moment it looks like joining the Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi) was a good step.

What I’ve been working on

I worked on four projects in April. I completed the proofread of a fiction novel about an unsolved murder and moved on to the biography of a Spanish composer. I followed the biography with some historical fiction about life and politics in a small Welsh town, and finished the month by proofreading a collection of accounts about the authors’ relationships with God and their religion. I absolutely love how diverse my work is.

What I read for fun

OK, I’m putting this here because it was enjoyable to read, even if I approached it as a source to inform my editing practice: Writing a Novel by Richard Skinner. Skinner is a creative-writing teacher at the Faber Academy, and it shows. I highly recommend this quite slim volume – it’s full of excellent advice and techniques, and its tone is positive and encouraging.

I managed one fiction read for this month: The Bone Season by Samantha Shannon. (I seem to keep coming to popular series late.) For a long book – 452 pages – it rattles along at a decent pace, and I was swept up with it.

Blog posts

I shared a few blog posts this month. The first was Denise Cowle on why the Grammar Police aren’t cool. I agree with her – and particularly on her point about being kind. Aeryn Rudel, writer of the Rejectomancy blog, has been writing and posting excellent microfiction of late, and his blog post on the benefits of producing such pieces is very interesting. I think he is spot on about it being a brilliant way to practise self-editing.

I’ve been taking part in the new Twitter chat (#IndieAuthorChat) organised by ALLi (Tuesdays, 8pm UK time) and it has been very enjoyable – I’d recommend joining in. One of the best things I have picked up from it is Alison Morton’s tracking grid, which she has kindly shared on her blog. It’s a simple, straightforward way to keep track of a novel’s timeline and summarise the events that have occurred.

Looking ahead

The West Surrey and North Hampshire SfEP local group is meeting mid-May, and I’m looking forward to catching up with the other members. And as if my editing work wasn’t enough, I’m undertaking my first book review for the SfEP’s Editing Matters magazine – I’m a bit nervous about it but I think it will be fun.